Sirius and Molly...

[sethrarose]

No: HPFGUIDX 72198

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, in response to 
me, "kiricat2001" <Zarleycat at a...> wrote:

> > Molly does regret hurting Sirius, but she really means what she 
> > says.  I would not want to go up against Molly when she's 
> > defending 'her' children, and Harry and Hermione are Weasley's by 
> > association.  Keep in mind that Molly has had the opportunity to 
> > know Sirius over a period of time in Grimmauld Place, where she 
> > has seen a depressed and frustrated man who has never raised 
> > children.  She has raised an entire brood, ergo she must know
> > more/better.
> 
> Whoa! Hold on! She has had the opportunity to know Sirius for maybe 
> about a month.  The Azkaban comment comes on the night Harry 
arrives. 
> Assuming that it took sometime for Sirius to "alert the old crowd" 
at 
> the end of GOF (in June) and some additional time for everyone to 
> gather at 12 Grimmauld Place, which is several weeks before Harry's 
> August 12 hearing and you have maybe a month at the most for Molly 
> and Sirius to be together.  Now, if the two of them are spending 
> every waking moment together, then, yes, maybe Molly is qualified 
to 
> make comments on Sirius' parental abilities. On the other hand, if 
> they have spent that much time together, then maybe as someone who 
is 
> so intuitively motherly, she might have picked up on the fact that 
> this is an depressed person and that perhaps treating him with 
scorn 
> is not the most ideal or the most humane course of action.

Oh, I'm not suggesting that Molly was thinking about Sirius' feelings 
at all, I think she was intent on protecting Harry.  Sirius is an 
adult, after all.  A month in the same house is presumably long 
enough for her to draw conclusions about his behavior.  Sirius 
encourages Harry to ask questions that Molly wants to protect not 
only Harry, but ALL of the children from.  Her reaction is to protect
all of them, and Sirius forces her to allow her own children to hear 
the answers to questions she does not believe they are prepared to 
hear.

 
> > > > The next thing that bothered me is the scene on the
> > > > platform.  Sirius embraced harry by putting his paws on him.  
> > > > And Molly told him (called him Sirius too) to act more like a 
> > > > dog.  
> > > 
> > > This bothered me too, she even tried to stop him from going to 
> > > Kings Cross in the first place.  
> > 
> > First of all, Molly knows that Sirius is a wanted man.  She knows 
> > that a number of Wizards know he's an animagus, and Harry's 
> > godfather. 
> 
> Funny, that.  Dumbledore had no problem sending Sirius to alert the 
> old crowd in June in his Animagus form.  At that point Ddore and 
> his allies knew that Peter was with Voldemort and Peter knew 
> Sirius' Animagus form. Thus, at that time the possibility existed 
> that Voldemort knew of Snuffles, and would tell his minions.  Yet, 
> sending Sirius off from Hogwarts in said form was no big deal.  
> Now, suddenly it is a big deal.

In June, the number of people who knew about Snuffles would have been 
far more limited than in August.

> > She knows Dumbledore told him to stay in the house.  It is 
> > reckless, foolish and dangerous for Sirius to go to the station, 
> > and nearly idiotic to draw so much attention to himself.  It has 
> > nothing to do with his right to love or embrace Harry, it has to 
> > do with safety.
> 
> On the other hand, once he's safely back in the unplottable, 
> securely defended, Secret-Keepered hidden 12 Grimmauld Place, after 
> the visit to the train station, who's going to be able to find him 
> there?  No one can get in the door unless it is revealed to them by 
> Dumbledore.  
> So, it seems to me that one trip out of the house is not the end of 
> the world.

You're right.  It does, however, serve to make Harry worry over 
Malfoy's comments re: the dog.  It gives the DE's the leverage to get 
Harry into the MoM.  It's the beginning of the end of Sirius.
 
> > Molly sees Sirius' behavior change, becoming more reckless and 
> > impulsive.  I believe Kreacher drugged him, but there I have 
> > information Molly doesn't.  Of course this makes her question his 
> > motives and qualifications when making decisions for Harry. 
 
> Molly questions Sirius in the very first scene we see them 
> together.  Before the trip to the station. Before JKR beats us over
> the head with the changes in Sirius' behavior that show him to be
> depressed and feeling useless.  At that point, Molly accuses him of 
> rash, reckless behavior.  And does she give any examples? No, she 
> says something to the effect that he's been known to behave 
> recklessly in the past. 

Yup.  After they've spent a period of time together at Grimmauld 
Place, and after Sirius has already put her on the defensive.  We 
know that Sirius has behaved recklessly, from PoA and GoF.  We know 
that her family is everything to Molly.  

> And, keep in mind that Molly was not in OoP the first 
> time around.  That makes me wonder just how closely she knows 
> Sirius and his past activites, pre-Azkaban.  But, it is certainly 
> convenient to have a character on the scene to start making those 
> observations...

I don't think Molly knew James and Lily.  She is unlikely to have had 
prior contact with any of the other members of the OotP. I base this 
on her reactions to them.  The Lexicon lists Bill as possibly 
starting Hogwarts when James & Co. were in their 6th year (1976)  
Harry is born 4 years later.  Molly would have been home with young 
children when the first order was formed, although Arthur may have 
been involved, in spite of his absence from Moody's photo.

I think, though, that you've hit the nail on the head.  Molly is in 
the scene and the dialog is written that way because JKR needs 
someone to make the observation for us.  This leads me to another 
question....

sethra